The present invention relates to robots and more particularly to robot control systems and the architecture with which such systems are configured.
The development of robotic systems has been accelerating and as a result robotic hardware and software capabilities have been expanding to enable more demanding and more complex robot tasks to be performed. As robots become more capable, new robot application areas are opened which in turn encourage the development of higher levels of robot capability.
In the incorporated by reference patent applications, there is disclosed a completely digital robot control system which is efficiently adaptable to developing robot technology because of the ease with which new functionality or better performance of existing functionality can be integrated into the control system through new or improved algorithms, control tasks, control looping, and/or digital control hardware. The adaptability of the digital robot control results both from its digital character and its architectural configuration. Thus, its overall hierarchical and modular structural organization enables it to provide the control task partitioning and the data communication capabilities needed to allow for cost effective and cost efficient performance enhancements as robot technology continues to develop.
The referenced application Ser. No. 932,991 relates to a manner in which the robot control system is arranged to provide a widely usable basic robot control that can be modularly expanded to meet higher performance applications. The present invention is directed to the overall architectural configuration of the completely digital basic robot control which enables it to be modified readily to incorporate robot technology advancements such as new robot common languages, advanced motion control, very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuitry developments, etc.